Five things you should know about Saturday's game vs. Portland

Magee going for a record already and time to end a couple Portland streaks

June 8, 2013

Jeff Crandall

Chicago-Fire.com

The Fire look to make it three wins on the trot as they welcome the Portland Timbers to Toyota Park Saturday night (Coverage begins 7pm CT on My50). Here are Five Things You Should Know about tonight's match...

Mike Magee Going for Three

With two goals in his first two matches, Mike Magee couldn’t have had a much better debut week for the Fire. Saturday night will be his third game for the Men in Red and should he tally vs. Portland he’d become just the second player in club history to score in each of his first three appearances.

The other? A man named Diego Chaves who scored in each of the team’s first three matches in 2011. In fact, the first game Chaves didn’t score in that season was a 4-2 defeat at Portland in the Timbers first-ever home MLS match.

The Two Magees

There will be two Magees in the building Saturday night at Toyota Park. Well there’ll probably be many more than that (I hear Mike has some family coming) but two Magees at field level, nonetheless.

The other is Timbers assistant coach and former Fire player Amos Magee. The elder Magee was a consistent Fire call-up back in the first days of the relationships between MLS and then USISL (now USL) clubs, playing in eight matches and scoring three goals for the Men in Red across all competitions.

Magee, known best as “Chesty” in Chicago, took on a sort of Fire cult hero status for his golden goal winner vs. the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in a 2001 U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal match in Wheaton.

Watch Chicago-Fire.com for more on that goal next week…

Rolfie Movin’ On Up

With an appearance Saturday night, Fire forward Chris Rolfe will move past Diego Gutierrez into eighth on the club’s all-time MLS appearance list at 158. He’ll also move into a tie for 10th place with Jim Curtin on the all competitions appearance list with 186.

Never Beaten Portland

Fire and Timbers fans have a friendly relationship and really, who can blame them?

BUT, there’s still a game to be played and the Fire face the unfortunate reality that they’ve never beaten the Timbers. I mentioned earlier a disappointing 4-2 defeat at Portland in their MLS home opener back in April 2011, that was a game the Fire were never really in.

The last two meetings however should have left a sour taste in the mouth of Fire supporters. The team dropped a 1-0 home result in a game they clearly dominated later that summer and fell 2-1 at Portland last May in a match they probably should have earned a point out of.

Coming in on an 11-game unbeaten streak and as the only MLS side to not lose on the road this season, Portland are no slouches but tonight would be as good a night as any to make sure both of those streaks end.

The Weather is Finally Agreeable

There’s little doubt Fire home matches haven’t been accompanied by great weather so far this season but there’s much hope for tonight. The forecast for kickoff in Bridgeview is a welcoming 69 degrees, 47% humidity and most importantly ZERO chance of precipitation.